Too Close
by imgoingtocallyoufern
Summary: "You buy drinks for all the ladies, huh?" Deeks shrugs. "Only the special ones." [Densi, AU]
1. Chapter 1

**This story idea originated from an AU prompt where Kensi and Deeks meet outside of work, rather than undercover. There are definitely a couple more chapters to come. Enjoy!**

**- Hazel**

* * *

"What's your name?" he asks suddenly, two seats down from her at the bar. The stranger gives her a soft, unassuming smile and Kensi grins right back. She finds no reason not to.

"Kensi."

He nods. "Pretty name."

"Thanks. What's yours?"

"Marty Deeks," he replies. "But you can just call me Deeks. Everyone else does."

Things are moving along rather quickly. She can't force herself to be bothered by that fact.

"Okay… Deeks, then."

"Uh-huh." He scoots over to the seat directly beside her, moving with a coolness and fluidity that she can't help but admire. "What are you drinking?"

Kensi looks down to her glass, which has just run dry. "Whatever they have on tap. I didn't even bother asking."

"My kind of girl." Deeks grins and signals at the bartender. "Two more beers, both on me? Thanks."

Kensi fiddles with her cup, swirling around the last inch of liquid as she tries to avoid his stare. Those blue eyes are piercing.

"You buy drinks for all the ladies, huh?"

Deeks shrugs. "Only the special ones."

She chuckles, taking a sip of beer. "Right."

He replicates her laugh. "I mean it! Not everyone catches my eye like you just did."

Even as a glass of beer is placed in front of her, Kensi refuses to look up. She can feel him staring.

"So… what do you do?" he asks as she remains silent.

Kensi sighs, hating the lie as it escapes her lips. "Art curator."

He laughs immediately. She finally looks up. "What's so funny about that?"

"You're _not _an art curator. There's no way."

"What makes you say that?"

"Art curators don't go to some shitty bar after a long hard day of working at the _museum. _There's no way that's a thing."

Kensi looks down and changes the subject. "Well… what do you do?"

He smiles. "Detective. LAPD."

_A cop? _She perks up immediately. This means one very, very awesome thing: she doesn't have to hide her identity ant longer. Not from other law enforcement.

"Can I see your badge?"

His forehead creases in confusion. "My badge?"

She rolls her eyes. "Just… show me. I'll explain in a minute."

Still looking suspicious, Deeks reaches into his pocket and slowly pulls out a shiny gold badge. She inspects it for about five seconds before handing it back.

"Alright… now I guess you can know that I'm a federal agent."

He perks up instantly. "You're a fed?"

"Yup."

"What agency?"

"NCIS."

"Wow." Deeks nods slowly, his grin widening. "So your cover is that… you're an art curator?"

"Yeah. Pretty great, huh?"

"Pretty unbelievable. And not in the cool sense, just in the 'that could never happen, this girl would never be an art curator' sense."

"You've only known me for about five minutes."

"I'm a pretty good judge of character, Kensi."

"I can tell."

He's subtly inching closer towards her, moving about a centimeter every minute.

"How's that?"

"Well you like me, don't you?"

He nods, grinning. "Definitely. I like you a lot."

"Good." They lock eyes and her breathing hitches for half a second. "I like you too."

"Good."

"Good."

* * *

"When are you gonna let me meet him?" Nell asks, almost giddy with excitement as they walk side by side into OSP.

"I don't know. He's… busy."

"I'm starting to think this guy is fictional. You won't even tell me his name."

She opens her mouth to respond, but is quickly cut off as Sam and Callen enter.

"Am I hearing correctly? Does Kensi Blye have a boyfriend?"

She rolls her eyes. "Not a boyfriend. Just a… um…"

"Boyfriend," Callen retorts.

She shakes her head. "Kinda. Not really. I don't know."

"What does he do?"

"He's a detective," Nell replies. "That's all she'll tell me."

"A detective, huh?"

"Yup. LAPD," Kensi says. "Isn't our new liaison from there too?"

Kensi's been curiously yet somewhat apprehensively awaiting the arrival of her new partner- she isn't always great with change.

"Uh-huh," Eric answers. "I think he's starting today."

"Maybe the guy will know him," she replies with a shrug.

"Yeah. Then we might actually get to meet him."

Kensi sticks her tongue out at Sam just as the automatic doors slide open and Hetty enters.

"I'd like to introduce you all to your new teammate," she says, gesturing to the man who's walking in just behind her. "This is Marty Deeks, LAPD."

Before the words have even escaped Hetty's lips Kensi and Deeks are already gawking at one another, each replicating the other's wide eyed stare.

"Oh my god."

_"Kens?"_

"Do you two…?" Callen looks back and forth from the agent to the detective. It only takes him a matter of seconds to put the pieces together. He practically bursts out laughing.

"Seriously? What are the odds of _that_?"

The rest of the team catches on rather quickly. Nell leans over to Kensi and whispers, "Is that the guy?" She just nods.

"I'm assuming that you two already know one another," Hetty states. Kensi swallows. Deeks nods.

"Kinda," she says.

He cocks his head to one side. "Yeah. But _kinda_ might be an understatement."


	2. Chapter 2

Deeks swallows hard, his adams apple bobbing. He finally tears his eyes away from Kensi and looks down to Hetty. "Would you mind… excusing us for a minute?"

She presses her lips into a line and nods. Deeks can't tell what she's thinking about and isn't sure that he'd want to anyways.

"Kens, lets just…" He awkwardly motions towards the door. She tucks her head and follows him out.

As soon as they've rounded the corner she swats him on the arm.

"Geez! What was that for?!"

"Why didn't you tell me they were reassigning you?"

He looks just as blindsided as she is. "They told me I was coming here _this morning_! I had no idea, babe! I promise!"

She looks around and hits him on the arm again. "What the hell?!"

"We're at work, Deeks! You can't call me _babe_."

He looks down to the floor, his forehead creased. "Right, right. Sorry."

Kensi shakes her head and folds her arms. "What do we do now?"

Deeks shrugs and grins. "I think I'm your new partner."

She doesn't seem so certain. "I don't see how this is ever gonna work out."

"What are you talking about?"

She laughs, the sound riddled with nerves. "What am _I _talking about? Deeks, we're like… I mean… you're my…"

"Boyfriend?" he offers.

Kensi closes her mouth and just stares at him.

"That is what I am, isn't it?" Deeks asks. "Your boyfriend?"

"Yeah… kinda."

"Kinda?"

"I don't know, Deeks!" She tosses her hands up in the air and raises her voice. Someone walks past, stares, and she immediately lowers it again. "We just haven't had that_ talk_ yet."

"What talk?"

"Ya know… the talk where we say that we're official."

"Aren't we?"

"I don't know! I kinda thought so."

"Why do you keep saying kinda?"

"Because I'm confused! And we-"

Kensi stops herself as Granger passes by them in the hall. She hadn't even realized he was in town.

"Everything alright, Agent Blye?"

She nods and fakes a smile. "Never better, Sir."

He retains a look of stoicism and gives Deeks a once-over before turning around to walk away.

"Who's that guy?" he whispers.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that we have a situation on our hands."

Deeks gives her one of his famous, perfectly crooked smiles. "I don't necessarily see this as a problem. It could be fun."

"This is work, Deeks, and our line of work isn't usually fun."

His smile doesn't falter. "Like I said- it could be."

Deeks starts walking back towards ops, but Kensi can't seem to move away from the spot where she's standing.

He notices her immobility and turns around. "You coming, partner?"

Kensi hesitates briefly, but eventually rolls her eyes and follows after him. Everyone is staring as they walk back into ops.

"You two good?" Sam asks.

Deeks looks to Kensi with raised eyebrows, allowing her to answer for him. She sighs. "Yeah. We're good."

Callen looks back and forth between the two of them a couple of times before extending a hand in Deeks' direction.

"G Callen, nice to meet you."

"Just G?"

Callen nods. "Just G."

Sam does the same, as does Eric and Nell. Kensi stands back and keeps her arms crossed the entire time, her mind spinning. How could Hetty not know? I mean, she hasn't told her about him yet, but Hetty knows _everything! _It just doesn't seem plausible that the super-ninja would skip over a factthis huge.

"Kensi?" Nell asks, interrupting her train of thought.

"Hmm?"

She looks up to find that everyone is staring at her. Great.

"Did you catch all of that?"

Nell's pointing behind herself at the monitor, where various pictures of what she assumes are suspects stare back at her.

Apparently, they just caught a case. Kensi zoned out for the entire briefing. Wonderful.

"Yeah, I got it," she lies.

"Good," Hetty interjects. "Mr. Hanna, Mr. Callen- go to the boat shed and have a little chat with our suspect." They nod and exit. "Miss Blye, Mr. Deeks- you two will investigate our victim's house. See what you can dig up."

"Right," Kensi says quietly. They both go for the exit and take a step back when their shoulders bump.

"Go ahead," he mumbles.

"Thanks," she replies.

Keeping as much distance as humanly possible between their two frames, Kensi and Deeks shuffle down the stairs. She catches Callen smirking at her from the bullpen.

"Have fun with your beau," he whispers as she passes.

Kensi slows down her pace slightly, and mutters at him through gritted teeth. "Shut it, G."

Sam gathers his gear and chuckles as they exit. "How do you think this is gonna play out?"

Callen doesn't even take a moment to think.

"Badly."


	3. Chapter 3

"This is a bad idea," Kensi says, walking around to the driver's side of her car. Deeks follows her, but looks over to his sedan which is parked directly beside hers as he goes.

"Why can't I drive?"

She turns to him with lifted eyebrows and just laughs. "Get in the car, Deeks."

"That isn't an answer."

"I didn't think the question really required one." He stares at her and she stares at him. Eventually Kensi breaks into a smile. "Just get in the car, Deeks."

He watches as she maneuvers inside and pulls the door shut. Deeks thinks about arguing further, but seeing as this is his girlfriend who doesn't deal well with being told no, he doesn't even bother trying.

"This would be more fun if you weren't so bossy," Deeks mutters as he fastens his seatbelt.

She chuckles and puts the car in reverse. They aren't even out of the parking lot yet and he's already pouting. "As I see it, you're coming into _my _territory here, Deeks."

He grins. "I thought I'd already come into your territory?"

She without taking her eyes off the road, Kensi reaches one hand out and smacks his shoulder. "Okay, babe- you seriously need to stop doing that. I feel like it's becoming a habit and I _thoroughly _do not enjoy it."

"Deeks!"

"What?"

They come to a stop light and she looks over at him, both eyebrows raised. It only takes him a minute to catch on.

"We aren't at work anymore! I can call you babe if I want."

"We're still working."

He shakes his head profusely. "Doesn't matter. I'm gonna call you by nicknames when we aren't at OSP. And if you don't go along with babe, I'll choose something much more annoying. Like... sunshine, or sugarbear, or something." She glares at him and he shows her a gleaming smile. Kensi finds it nearly impossible to hold up the facade when Deeks flashes his pearly whites. "I'm allowed to have at least one thing of my own in this partnership, and I choose that."

She swallows down her pride and watches as he continues smiling for a long moment, then- "Green light, Kens."

Her cheeks turn pink and she hits the gas. They sit in silence for a moment, Deeks watching Kensi the whole time. She can feel his eyes on her and he's well aware of that fact.

"You're very..._ different_ at work, did you know that?"

"How do you figure?"

Deeks couldn't give her a more baffled look if he tried. "Really?"

Kensi doesn't seem to think the answer is that obvious. "What?"

"Well, for starters, we've been working together for all of twenty minutes and you've hit me three times."

As the words roll off his tongue she hears how bad that sounds, and finds it within herself to swallow down her pride. "Sorry."

He seems happy with himself, and finally turns to look at the road in front of him. "That's alright. It's good for me. Keeps me in check."

"Oh, so do you want me to keep doing it?"

He realizes how poorly that last sentence came across and shakes his head. "No, I'm good. I'll find alternate ways to deal with my own inflamed ego."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Your other teammates will probably pick up the slack."

"What are you talking about?"

Her naiveness is simultaneously adorable and unnerving. "I have ears. I heard that G dude call me your 'beau' back there."

"Aren't you?"

"Yeah, but you're missing the point. I have a feeling that's just the start of a long, torturous initiation period."

"They aren't_ that_ bad."

He doesn't look convinced. "Yeah. We'll see."

She snorts. "You're probably right."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kensi shrugs. "They do have a track record of… _terrorizing _my past male counterparts."

His eyes widen and he looks as if he desperately wants out of the car. Not for any particular reason, just as a result of the ultimate ora of discomfort that currently surrounds him.

"_Terrorizing? _Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Before what, exactly? Before this morning, when you were suddenly and without warning assigned as my partner?"

Her sassiness isn't lost on him. "Touche," Deeks mumbles, sighing.

She winks. "Thanks babe."

"Ohhhhh, so it's okay for you to say it but not me?"

"We're in the car, _going_ to work. It's just like you said. This-" She motions between their two chests. "-isn't work."

Deeks sucks his lips into his mouth, thinking. "You sure?"

Wordlessly, she punches him in the arm. _Again. _He winces and grabs at his bicep. "Okay, yeah, that one was warranted."

As they roll into the driveway of their victim's house, she slows to a stop and then slams on the brake, just for maximum impact. Deeks is thrust forward but refuses to wince as she looks over at him, wearing a painted on smile.

"I believe it was," Kensi says, narrowing her eyes. "_Sugarbear."_


End file.
